The Ref Stop

England v Wales - NOT the 'goal'!

P

PinnerPaul

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Towards the end of the match, a Welsh player went down in front of the benches (On the pitch). Ball was out of play. Welsh player was obviously suffering from cramp. Phil Neville stepped on to field of play (About 2 metres at most) to help stretch out the Welsh player's cramp.

Up jumps 4th official and then referee runs over to admonish him and tell him to get back in his technical area.

Looked very 'jobsworth', showed a lack of empathy with the game and unnecessarily created conflict when PN was just being sporting.

'Spirit of the game' has been touted by FIFA recently in law changes and yet this type of good example of showing spirit of the game is jumped on by the officials.

I'm well aware that officials were 100% correct 'in law', but as we all know that sometimes applying the law strictly to the letter is not in the best interest of the game.
 
The Ref Stop
Didn’t see the incident but saw on twitter that the 4th Official was Lauren Holt who’s a young level 4 referee. Massive occasion for her so consider empathy for the official as well.
 
In an international match, a manager left the technical area, entered the field, and started giving medical attention to an opponent and we're criticizing the ref for TALKING to Neville? If she didn't say anything, the FIFA match assessor probably rips her to shreds afterwards. She didn't physically pull him off the pitch. She didn't have him dismissed. She TALKED to him.
 
Well for a start, WHATEVER he did, she would get in hot water for 'pulling him off the pitch' so that's surely a given!

As I said, both officials technically correct, but just looked like they had no empathy with the game.

As I've mentioned if you want to referee EVEYTHING by the book, then you have to ask why referee allowed EVERY kick from hands by Welsh GK to take longer than 6 seconds? There are things we all allow every week that are not as per LOTG.
 
I have to say, with the ball out of play and a player in obvious distress (she was screaming in pain initially) and knowing from personal experience how debilitating a severe bout of cramp can be, I did think the officials were being a bit over-officious in the way they reacted to this situation. In the end they were all smiling about it but at first they seemed to be more interested in getting Neville off the pitch than getting treatment for a player who was obviously suffering some considerable pain.
 
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https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/foot...ngland-wales-kayleigh-green-womens-world-cup/

Storm in a teacup really. The officials didn't handle this as bad as some make it out to be. But I agree it doesn't do our image a whole lot of favours. It would have looked better to hurry along the physio and to let Neville be until the physio takes over. No decent assessor would have criticised that. Physically handling managers is not a good idea either. I think the 4th official will take some learning points away from this.
 
The problem is, and I've seen this happen, someone tries to help with cramp by stretching the leg out but it was actually a calf tear. As a veteran of calf injuries, a grade 1 or even 2 calf tear doesn't feel a whole lot different to cramp, so you need to be careful as stretching out a torn calf is absolutely not going to help.

Neville didn't mean any harm, and I'm sure it was totally the opposite, he was just trying to help. What I'm surprised at, given where it happened, is how long the physio took. A good physio should be ready to spring from their seat as soon as a player hits the ground.
 
RustyRef said:
The problem is, and I've seen this happen, someone tries to help with cramp by stretching the leg out but it was actually a calf tear. As a veteran of calf injuries, a grade 1 or even 2 calf tear doesn't feel a whole lot different to cramp, so you need to be careful as stretching out a torn calf is absolutely not going to help.

Neville didn't mean any harm, and I'm sure it was totally the opposite, he was just trying to help. What I'm surprised at, given where it happened, is how long the physio took. A good physio should be ready to spring from their seat as soon as a player hits the ground.
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Agree there, the Welsh physio was only about 10 yards away!
 
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